Judean Sheep, Clouds of Glory & a Sukkot Like No Other - Jeremy Gimpel:The Land of Israel Fellowship

All right, thank you very much, Ari. Um, you guys see my new background here. I have like the sheep in the background with the sun coming up over Judea. When Ari told me that the title of this week's fellowship was going to be about riding the roller coaster of faith in life, I just felt like that absolutely resonated with me. There's just um life is a journey. There's ups, there's downs, there's scary, it's thrilling, it's amazing. Just the entire spectrum of emotions are experienced through our lives. And there's this ancient spirit tradition. It's 4,000-year-old tradition of what it means to ride this, you know, ride of life guided by the God of Israel, living in relationship with the God of Israel. And it's a wisdom of how to maximize our experience on this earth, how to live a blessed life, how to be a blessing to everyone around us. And this is a an amazing time of year. We're just right in the middle of this entire process. And that's what I want to talk about today, the process of going from Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur into Sukkot. And it just makes everything very real. It's just not about um rituals or things that need to be done, but it's an experience in time. But before we get there to really understand that, I'm going to take you out to the mountains of Judea right as this sun was rising with our flock of sheep uh cuz I could really only express it there in the mountains. And then we're going to take that video and then take it to the next level. So, this is just a short clip with the sunrise of the mountains. Hey fellowship, boker tov. It is um Friday morning here right after Yom Kippur. The sun literally just now came up over the mountains. And behind us is our flock of sheep. And when we put out that request, I just had no idea how much love we have generated in this fellowship and how deeply connected people are to Israel and how far it's spread beyond our fellowship. But now um the land of Israel is protected by our sheep. And our flock is growing and there're new names now. There's Jackson and Cutie Pie and I'm making orders still out of them. I'm going to give them all name tags. But um if you could see behind us now, the sun is shining over the mountains of Moab, over the Dead Sea. And these sheep that so naturally blend into the mountains here are once again treading on these holy terraces. And it is thanks to you. But imagine, I think Ed told us on the last fellowship in the chat, only God would use sheep and not guard dogs to protect his land. But somehow these docile, sweet animals are the defenders of Judea. And I just can't thank you enough. This is the first morning after Yom Kippur that I'm taking them out to pasture. I've been here since about 3:30 in the morning. And now it's 6:30 in the morning and the sun is just really shining bright now. And so I just wanted to thank you all. Um our flock is your flock. And this land is our land. And the Arugot Farm here behind us is our farm. And how beautiful it is that we're doing this all together. So, getting ready for Sukkot now. So, you know, just out in that mountains, it's hard to explain, but you know, King David wrote most of the Book of Psalms in our mountains. And of course there's the most famous one of all, "The Lord is my shepherd." And so David in that Psalm is he's really imagining like he's a sheep. And I never really got that until here I am out in the mountains with our sheep and God is our shepherd. And it connects so deeply to the Torah portion and to this time of year because what is Sukkot in the biblical calendar? You know, Yom Kippur is the day that God gave us the second tablets. We were forgiven and it was okay again. God's presence came and rested again after it it was it disappeared after the sin of the golden calf. And then Sukkot, we're actually resting within the clouds of glory, within God's presence and that presence guided us through the desert. And so, you know, these sheep, they just don't know where I'm going to take them. They can just see in front of them and it's amazing that they can just eat the brown, dry thorns and little pieces of dried-up grass, but they just eat it and it's amazing, but they don't really know where the next mountain is going to take them. And I was thinking, well, Sukkot is the holiday that we celebrate our journeying through the desert. And the sukkah represents the clouds of glory. The sukkah represents little booths that we made as we traveled through the desert, both the clouds of glory and those little booths. But I was thinking, the clouds of glory, let's really think about that. In the nighttime, we had a pillar of fire. And in the daytime we had clouds of glory. And those were our two guiding lights by God. But I mean, if I think about a guiding light at nighttime, there's a pillar of fire. I can't really see anything. I just I mean, I just got to walk toward that light into the distance. I don't really see much other than that light. And so, okay, I'm just walking as best as I can with the little bit of godly guidance that I'm given, but I don't really see around me. I can't really see that far ahead of me. I can't really see definitely not behind me. I'm just I'm just trying to walk in the light. But in the daytime, where everything should be, I mean, I should be able to see all the way to Moab. No, no, there's a cloud of glory that's guiding us. And I never thought of that, but that cloud of glory doesn't let us see very far either. I mean, a cloud is something that distracts our vision. There's a block there. And so even as we're walking in the daytime, we weren't able to see the next mountain over. And that really is the happiness of Sukkot, to recognize we're never going to have all the answers. We're never going to know. I mean, could anyone have imagined that this global pandemic and this vaccine fiasco and what is going on in the world today? Could anyone have even imagined that 2 years ago? There's just no way. But we have like a cloud of glory that's guiding us in the next step and the next step and the next step. And we have no idea what will happen in a month from now. But true happiness, Sukkot teaches us, is to just be with God where he is with you right now. Walking one step at a time, following the light, following the cloud. And the cloud, even though it's obstructing our view, we're just walking in its direction. And here we are now, the last Torah portion that we read right before we go into Sukkot, it gives us real guidance. It's one of the last commands in the Torah. And it's in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 7. Can we get that up on the screen? Perfect. So, here's what it says, "Remember the days of old, understand the years from generation to generation." There's a biblical mandate to know biblical history. That's why the whole Bible in some way is his story. It's God's story of the unfolding relationship that he has with all of the people that believe, all the people that walk in his light. There's a recorded history that starts with Adam and Eve and it goes all the way through until Ezra and Nehemiah. It's like a a living story that is our history. And there's a biblical command, know your history. Why do we need to know our history? What does that have to do with Sukkot? And well, Sukkot, we are celebrating our history. We're dramatizing our history. We're reliving our history where that history becomes our identity. It's how we live in the world. It's like we get out of our, you know, solid homes and we're just now out with the clouds of glory protecting us, not even seeing where we're going. But there's something even deeper here because in order to really understand what our purpose is, what our mission is, what God is calling us to do with our life, it doesn't always happen in one flash moment of inspiration. On the contrary, you really need a lot of time. And God is communicating to all of humanity over time. And in our personal lives, this is a beautiful quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of my mentors and rabbis. And here's what it says, "In our own lives, the voice of God speaks slowly, a syllable at a time, reaching the peak of years, dispelling some of our intimate illusions. In learning how to spell the meaning of life experiences backwards, some of us discover how the scattered syllables form a single phrase." It's like God is guiding us on our journeys for so many years. What it's taken to bring us to where we are today in our marriage, who we've married, our children, our upbringing, our discovering, our having to let go of some of our illusions, our grabbing onto new I mean, it's it's such a long journey and we can really only understand it when we look backwards and then slowly but surely watch spice card after spice card how God is communicating with us and guiding us throughout the journey. It's like a cloud of glory because it's impossible to see the entire sentence all at once at all at once. And so Sukkot is teaching us walk with God in the clouds of glory. That's where happiness lies. It's the holiday of happiness because we're not looking for the whole phrase, just one step at a time. One walking with that pillar of fire, that cloud of smoke, it's just over the next horizon, just to the next mountain top. And we walk one step at a time. And then when we look back, we can see wow, look, our shepherd has guided us all throughout the mountains and up and down through the valleys, all just to bring us back to our safe home once again. And really all of us were just we're just walking each other home. I think that's the goal of this fellowship. We're all just walking each other back to Jerusalem where we belong. And so I just want to bless you all with the most amazing Sukkot possible, that these flock of sheep are protecting our land and protecting God's land and protecting our farm, and you've been such a blessing to us. And now we see like who would have imagined Ari and I came out to this mountain and there was just nothing there. Who would have thought that we would have a vineyard that would be destroyed, that a flock of sheep, a fellowship from around the world, we just never could have known it. We just walk one step at a time following the light, following the cloud of glory, feeling God's presence in our lives and trying to intuit what is the next step. And walking with that intuition, that's Chag Sameach. That is the holiday of happiness. It's not about actually making it to the land. We celebrate just the walking itself without any clear vision, celebrating being in that reality where we don't know what the next year is going to bring us, but knowing that one step at a time God is guiding us the entire time. And so you should all be blessed beyond measure for all of your support and all of your love. We just we never knew. We didn't know. And now it's like we've become so interconnected in on a deeper level now. And now you should all be blessed as you have blessed us. So Chag Sameach and thank you. Hi, my name is Jeremy Gimpel. A lot of people want to know exactly what the Land of Israel Fellowship is and what members receive when they join. So let me explain. The Land of Israel Fellowship is a global online community with hundreds of members from over 40 countries around the world. There are live sessions and gatherings that create a direct personal connection to the Land of Israel and to lovers of Israel from around the world. There's no online gathering that I'm familiar with that is connected to the Land of Israel that unites and brings together such a diverse group of people, backgrounds, and nationalities. It feels like prophecy. It feels like something we need in these times, like a window in to a better future on the horizon. There's a divine unity we experience every week in our fellowship broadcast. We heard these amazing teachings from an authentic Hebrew and Israel perspective and our jaws drop, not only because they ring so true and are such a blessing, because they are so consistent with what we believe. These Sunday morning gatherings are nothing less than a house of prayer for all nations. Cindy Lowe, the United States of America. The Land of Israel Fellowship is an amazing resource for learning Torah, the Bible, and the prophets, unfiltered and uncensored directly from the Land of Israel. We've been studying Torah for almost 20 years, but we feel we are stepping into it more than ever and seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture. We're encouraged more and more every week. Calvin Ardel, USA. Members receive access to all the archives in the library of teachings on every portion of the Torah, the biblical feasts, Hebrew prayer, prophecy, sessions on the ancient wisdom of the prophets of Israel to help us navigate through these turbulent times. These sessions are so rich. I relisten to each and truly each session is the best one yet. Tehila is a tremendous asset and the teachings Ari shares are so rich. I've read the Bible so many times and I've known the things you are teaching. The Hebrew understanding is what Christians have missed for centuries. Sister Georgian from Germany. The Land of Israel Fellowship is truly unique because it's built upon personal relationships with the teachers in the fellowship, myself, Rabbi Ari Abramowitz, and Tehila Gimpel. Every member has direct access to the staff 24/6 via email or direct WhatsApp to ask questions, to comment, to connect directly to all the teachers. And over the last years we've connected to some of the most beautiful people on the planet. So if you want to find out more and join the Land of Israel Fellowship, you can click on the link below. And if you want to try it out for just a month, you can email [email protected] and we'll hook you up. I hope to see you. Shalom from the mountains of Judea.